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Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary

by Bang on a Can All-Stars

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 19 Bang on a Can releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of MEMORY GAME, More Field Recordings, Cloud River Mountain, from the Archives, Vol. 1, Bang on a Can Summer 2016 Mixtape, Bang on a Can Fall 2015 Mixtape, A Ballad For Many, The Essential Martin Bresnick, and 11 more. , and , .

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  • CD signed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This two disc release is signed by members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and composers, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang. This is an essential recording from our catalog and extremely rare to get a copy with these signatures! Only 9 available!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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about

"This album collects some of the greatest music the band has made over its 25 years of being dedicated to 'awesome'". - San Francisco Classical Voice

The Bang on a Can All-Stars have recorded their first studio album in five years: Ashley Bathgate, cello; Robert Black, bass; Vicky Chow, piano; David Cossin, percussion; Mark Stewart, electric guitar; and Evan Ziporyn, clarinets.

With Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, the Bang on a Can All-Stars show off their blazing speed, polyrhythmic virtuosity and all-world versatility in a return to the core Bang on a Can sound - an uncategorizable supermix of classical and electric instruments that is part classical ensemble, part rock band, and part jazz sextet. The album is the first in a decade that features the All-Stars exclusively, rather than as part of a collaborative project. Each of the pieces on the double-CD calls upon a different kind of virtuosity, demonstrating the range of musical abilities and experiences arguably unique to this ensemble. Recorded in New York City, all of the music on Big Beautiful Dark and Scary (including the arrangements of the works by Conlon Nancarrow) were written for and premiered by the Bang on a Can All-Stars.

Big Beautiful Dark and Scary's title track was written by Julia Wolfe. Wolfe, who was a witness to the 9/11 tragedy, standing with her young children two blocks from Twin Towers when the planes hit, captures the feverish post- apocalyptic feeling of living in the wake of 9/11 with an ominous wall of sound that has the Bang on a Can All-Stars playing at full throttle. For the premiere in April 2002 Wolfe wrote, "This is how life feels right now."

Big Beautiful Dark and Scary also features brand new tracks by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Evan Ziporyn, Kate Moore, and David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors.

David Longstreth contributes three new works to this album: Instructional Video, Matt Damon, and Breakfast at J&M. Longstreth, who, like Kate Moore, was a composition fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, captures the off-beat quirkiness that he has come to be known for as the mastermind of indie sensation Dirty Projectors.

credits

released February 28, 2012

Ashley Bathgate, cello; Robert Black, bass; Vicky Chow, piano; David Cossin, percussion; Mark Stewart, guitar; Evan Ziporyn, clarinets

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